Thursday, November 29, 2007

Won't anyone think of the children?

Like all ProjRun superfans, Rachel and I kept up the chatter about what the "ZOMG! Hardest Challenge EVAR!1!" (notice a theme?) might be. Rachel had her fingers, toes, hair, internal organs, crossed that it might be children. CAN YOU IMAGINE? That would be the hardest challenge ever.

I was totally bored by the fact that it was menswear. So bored that I actually fell asleep right before elimination. Ok, so that last part is true, but its not necessarily because it was menswear. Also, don't we recall menswear from another season? Rachel, help me out here...

Although it wasn't kids, I liked seeing the designers leave their comfort zones for the world of menswear. It was interesting to see how making clothes for men was so much harder for these people than creating garments using flowers, home decorations, paper, etc. The only other time I can remember Project Runway delving into menswear was in Season 2, when the contestants had to dress each other. In her first attempt at dressing a guy, Chloe won with an awesome outfit she made for "Uncle" Nick Verreos.

Anyway, a"s much as I am bitching about the ZOMG Hardest Challenge EVAR!1!, I sort of love it when Project Runway shakes these designers out of their little fashion world. You know, the world that is populated by tall, stick-thin dolls that you can dress and undress even without the convenient snaps in the back. It's all "WHAT clothes go above size 2? Fat people wear clothes? Old women wear clothes? MEN wear clothes? WHAT?!"

Even better that the client is Tiki Barber:

You know whatever they made would not fit Tiki's "thick neck, skinny waist and BIG BOOTY." ok, so he didn't say that exactly, but you get the point.

Tiki Barber cannot lie -- he's got a big butt. Seriously, Tiki and wife Mrs. Tiki seemed to spend a lot of time thinking about ways to show off or hide Barber's rear end. It was all for naught, however, because none of the designers knew who he was. Tiki was just another customer. The vast difference in body type between a big, burly football player and relatively skinny male models made it difficult for me to picture Tiki wearing ANY of the designs. I'll have to Google for a pic of him wearing the winner on the Today show.

I personally liked Kevin's design best. He not only made an amazing outfit that totally met Tiki's specifications (What was with him all saying "I'll wear pink" during the interview, but switching and saying he would wear the outfit with a different shirt during runway? Oh Tiki.)

Kevin's design was great, although there was some definite weirdness going on about the purple shirt. At least we found out that Seal -- aka Mr. Heidi Klum -- wouldn't be allowed out of the house in a plummy shade. Too bad, because I think both Seal and Tiki could rock this color.

OHMIGOSH wait a gosh darn second here. How could I not mention the most important part of this episode? MALE MODELS. This is where we get to FINALLY objectify men.

The arrival of the male models was the best part of the whole episode. Loved how the editors included plenty of gratuitous underwear and abdominal shots. The level of awe among the designers made me wonder why more of them aren't menswear designers -- maybe they're afraid of getting too distracted by the eye candy?

Do you think Elisa just spit on her model's...pants seam?

Not much Elisa craziness this time, except for the scene where she turned her back as the model got undressed. Oh Elisa, if you can spit on clothing you can definitely handle the intimacy of looking at a half-clothed man.

Anyway, in the end Carmen went home cause, uhhh, she didn't even have a shirt on her model. Imagine if that had been a woman ... I have to say, for not having a shirt, she made the piece of fabric work.

Poor Carmen. I knew she was done for when Michael Kors called her out for crazy crotch action; anyone who saw Bradley's Cher outfit from Season 3's Icon challenge knows this area is one of Kors' pet peeves. I was shocked by how many of the designs were completed before the runway show because almost everyone seemed to have a ton of work to do with only hours to go.